Analysis and comment from Memphis, Tennessee, on media, politics, culture, science, my life and anything else that catches my eye.

Saturday, January 18, 2003

Pardon My Puke

Sorry for the Mike Fleming-style title, but I'm really getting tired of Sunquist retirement stories like this one, from the Commercial Appeal.

His own party disowned him. He's a true pariah. He became the most irrelevant man in Tennessee politics almost overnight. He ignited an Income Tax War that lasted for four years and kept the State from dealing with important issues that still plague us. He tied State government into knots, deliberately, and made common cause with his political enemies, for no good purpose. His legacy will be one of shame, anger, futility, hostility, waste and corruption.

His only fans seem to be in the newspapers, where they write this McArthurian, "old heroes never die, they just fade away" drivel. The papers should be wondering what took him so long to leave and encouraging little children not to kick his ass on the way out the door.